In the early 80's, recession set in in Mexico. The country was hopelessly in debt, the oil markets were depressed and inflation ran rampant. The revolt of '68 and subsequent civil unrest had set the stage for the economic collapse that followed. The Technocratic Syndicate had already implemented plans to abandon all its interests, and convoked a Symposium on the matter in September 1984. During that meeting, attention was focused on Monterrey, a prosperous industrial city that had emerged seemingly unscathed from the economic crisis, and had even shown some growth of its own. That meeting resulted with the Cintermex Accords, in which Virtual Adepts, Syndicate and New World Order decided in a calculated gamble to invest Monterrey and turn in into a bridge between the United States and South America.

Monterrey had fared well during the 70's mostly because of its vampire Prince Emilio Carelli, a 6th generation Ventrue, and his obsession with heavy industry. At least a dozen large companies operated their plants in Monterrey, dominated by a huge steel foundry, Fundidora de Mexico. The plants were old and inefficient, but Carelli kept them alive thru huge investments. His fief had also the largest population of Camarilla Kindred in Mexico, and Carelli and his Primogen had a hard time keeping the Sabbat, which ruled uncontested over most of the country, at bay. The Primogen controlled the riot police, and used it ruthlessly to quell Anarch activity. The local PRI (ruling political party), was a Kindred puppet, so mortal political activity was well contained.

In March 1984, a large Node was discovered on the grounds of Monterrey Tech and claimed by the Virtual Adepts, who began construction of their largest Chantry in America outside the USA. Four large Cabals (Black Ice, Synthetique, Defcon-4 and New Machine) firmly esconced themselves in the Chantry, christened CETEC (CEnter for advanced production TEChnology). In a flurry of activity, they set up Lola, an Iteration X v10.6 prototype talent to serve as a nerve center for Cintermex Accords activity, began to invest strongly in the local computer-tech companies and to mold Monterrey Tech to suit their purposes.

The New World Order part of the Accords was even more ambitious: a complete facelift for Monterrey. First, a central urbanization plan. On December 1984, construction began on the Macro Plaza, a modern park built around the Obelisk. Five months later, an impressive tour-de-force by Men in Black destroyed the only remaining Tradition Cabal: the Celestial Chorus' Saint Catherine's Knights. Another similar operation ran against a Werewolf pack in the Chipinque State Park, resulting in heavy losses on both sides.

Local credit and financial enterprises were gathered, fostered and infiltrated by the Syndicate. They assembled the strongest companies into the Alfa Group, which became over the course of two years into the largest real estate holder in Monterrey, as well as its most affluent creditor.

In August 1985, the CETEC was finished, and the Chantry began operations in earnest. Lola was seconded to Sofia, the primary Mexican talent, and a 100Mb/second physical link was established to both Tron and Belvedere. The first stage of the Macro Plaza was completed, and a second stage underway, when disaster struck.

In November 1985, Prince Emilio Carelli was destroyed by a Sabbat assassin. Headless, the Primogen of the city struggled amongst themselves, while Carelli's power structure collapsed. A number of high officials died under misterious circumstances. The Kindred of the city, gone soft under 190 years of Carelli's rule, did not take part in the Primogen's wrestling, and actually began to abandon the city. A particularly nasty crime wave hit, partly due to the leaderless police force, partly due to vigorous Sabatt recruiting.

After nearly a year of bickering, the Primogen elected a puppet Prince, Marcus LaCroix, a 7th generation Toreador. By this time, the Technocracy had acted resolutely to bring the city back under control. HIT Marks were brought in to subdue Anarch activities in the slums, and reinforce the riot police.

Just when it appeared Techocratic order was returning to the city, a huge flood swept thru Monterrey. Most of the central discrict was under water, and thousands of people were evacuated to higher ground. Local bussinessmen panicked, and were convinced to remain in the area by opening the San Pedro district for development. The Garou siezed the opportunity and recovered both their caerns: Chipinque and Pastora.

The Garou had been mostly concerned with recovering the ground they had lost during the Technocracy's return to power. They struck hard and fast, and suffered heavy losses. The Chipinque sept, Moon-Between-Rocks, had an easier task, as the Technocracy could not transport their heavier units to such a remote location. The battle for the Pastora caern, however, was vicious and bloody, as both sides had to recur to guerilla tactics, suitable for the suburban park Pastora had become. The Garou warrior Stone-That-Weeps was mostly responsible for the victory at Pastora, as he lead the fanatical Huasteca Garou in suicide dusk raid that virtually annihilated the Iteration X HIT Stealth units. For this he was honored and made leader of the new-founded Shadow-of-the-Mountain sept.

However, this turned out the be but one of the many blows the Technocracy would receive. Foreign capital had just about written Monterrey off after the April 1987 flood, so any possibility of further industrial development was arrested. In a final coup de grace, the Mexican goverment closed down the Fundidora, crippling Monterrey's industrial machine. The future looked bleak, and the Technocracy met again to determine a course of action. Oddly enough, the Cintermex Accords held, mostly because of the highly vocal and persuasive Virtual Adepts.

Their projects, namely the CETEC Chantry and Lola, had escaped both unrest and flood unscathed. The New Machine cabal had recruited numerous Apprentices and Acolytes from the Tech community, everything from engineers to architechs. They conviced the Technocracy to give them the task of finishing the Macro Plaza, using the Syndicate's resources and the newfound talent of their Acolytes.

In quick succession, the New Machine presented projects for the Cintermex Building, the new Basillic of Guadalupe (to build over the St. Catherine's Knight's Node), the Metro Subway, the City Auditorium, a new Congress building, seven different statues to place all over the city, the State Capitol building, the State Library, the Museum of Mexican History, the Museum of Comtemporary Arts (for the Camarilla's Elysium) and nine other buildings, most of them for bussiness use. All the projects were designed and built by Adept acolytes, and had the special aura of Correspondence magick about them: they are grandiose, graceful, angular and colorful.

Such a move to power by the Virtual Adepts did not go unnoticed, however. The New World Order was particularly ruffled at having their remodeling project taken from them. They got their chance at revenge the following year, when the Virtual Adepts defected.

In 1988, when the Virtual Adept Aksum invented the VRPL (Virtual Reality Programming Language) that enabled Tron to 'go virtual', the Adepts began exploring a new reality completely under their control. Such an unauthorized and potentially dangerous venture prompted a brutal retaliation by the Technocracy. New World Order and Iteration X pooled their resources, destroyed Belvedere and infiltrated and disabled Tron. Individual cabals were hunted down by HIT Marks and Men in Black, and a prime target, after Tron was raided, was the CETEC Chantry.

All four Adept cabals were brought to battle by the Technocracy. Synthetique was completely destroyed, as were five of the six members of New Machine. Lola was infected by an Iteration X boreworm virus and reduced to an adding machine. The surviving Deacons of the Chantry, Motley and Mystic Mongoose, succeded in setting up a BBS called Creatures of the Night, to rally the remaining Adepts and their Acolytes. Just before they could meet for the first time, Motley was gunned down by Men in Black.

The news was bad: only ten of the twenty-nine CETEC Chantry Virtual Adepts were alive: Deacon Mystic Mongoose; Mentor Circus; Cyberbrain, SyD Barret, NinjaByte and Jinx of Defcon-4; Razzor, Frankenstein, Koala and Mim of Black Ice. The Apprentices Azteca, Raider, Sinistrad, Rattler, RangerElf, Antrax, Airplane and Magu and thirteen Acolytes were also active. The Adepts decided to lie low and wait for help, which would arrive within the month in the form of Tradition warrior-mages.

Regrouped, rallied and reinforced, the Adepts retaliated, hatching a plan to recover their talent and smash the host machine before the Technocracy could confiscate it. Defcon-2 recruited the well-known Rogue EyeSpy and the Errant Raistlin, and in a daring search-and-rescue-thrash-and-crash operation, they recovered Lola just before the entire Node was transported into the Auctochtonia Realm.

Unknowingly, the Adepts also caused a rift in the Portal the Technocracy was opening, which combined with the nearby presence in physical reality of a high-powered Talisman attracted the attention of the Marauder Roland. Using the Technocracy's own magicks to pierce the Gauntlet, Roland stepped in, stole the Talisman's Quintessence and smashed the inadequate defense marshalled by the New World Order.

Riding the extreme high of a Quintessence Rush, Roland escaped thru the Umbra, where he met and engaged a Garou pack while they were recharging their Pathstones. He made off with four of the Stones, intending to use them to buy his passage into the Horizon Realms. Thus a single Marauder succeeded in antagonizing the Traditions, Technocracy and Garou in the space of a single hour.

The Technocracy wanted Roland captured, or at the very least, banished. The Head Preceptor of Monterrey, Lars Kenneth of the New World Order, offered the Adepts an armistice in exchange for their help in foiling the Marauder's escape into the Horizon. The Garou howled in rage and demanded a place in the hunt, wanting their Pathstones back desperately.

The next day, Roland's contact arrived: a Nephandus called Asgard, with her entire retinue. They had worked together many times before, and the exchange was going to be neat and clean. Had the combined assault of the Traditions, Garou and Technomancers not fallen exactly in the middle of it.

Asgard was captured by Iteration X and ransomed, but Roland escaped without the Pathstones. The Garou were satisfied, and made this clear by offering the mages of Monterrey half the Quintessence produced at their caern; but Traditions and Technocrats were still muffed. A pact was struck, whereby the Traditions were charged with protecting the weak spot in the Gauntlet that had been their Node, and the New World Order pledged to turn a blind eye as to the Adepts' presence and activities. No such pledge was given by Iteration X, though.

The armistice lasted exactly 29 days. Undermanned and incredibly undergunned by Iteration X, Defcon-4 raided and stole a small arms-and-equipment convoy headed for Monterrey. Among the spoils was a replacement machine for the Cintermex Accords, which was inmediately refitted and converted into Lola. The raid was a joint venture with the Garou of the city, and marked the beginning of a strong cooperation which would later come to fruition.

The Garou, as it were, had not exactly sat on their paws for the whole affair. As a strong Glass Walker and Bone Gnawer prescence had returned to Monterrey, the city underground was infiltrated and lost Kinfolk returned to the fold. The urban Garou tribes succeded in opening a new caern in the Near Umbra, which has thrived under the guidance of Put-Some-Ketchup and Exact-Change, their leaders.

After six years of half-hearted skirmishing, the battle for Monterrey is beginning to feel very like a siege.

Four strong (and growing stronger) Garou septs are determined never to lose their sacred caerns again; they defend their ground furiously against all comers, be they Technomancers or Traditionals. Lineages thought long lost are being slowly brought back the pack, and the urban Garou are gaining a grudging respect for their Traditional mage allies. As their strength and confidence in their leaders grows, the offensive is starting to look like an option for the Garou.

The city's Kindred, inspired by the recent liberation of Guadalajara from the Sabbat, are girding themselves for war. The sister city of Saltillo is also under heavy Sabbat encroachment, but a long-standing feud between the twin cities's Primogen prevent their banding together to meet the common foe. Tremere and Brujah reinforcements are on their way, but they literally have to fight thru the Sabbat, mile by costly mile. Prince Carelli's final legacy, his hard-won non-aggression pact with the Technocracy, faulters as the Camarilla Kindred are beginning to muster their forces, both living and undead.

Outside the gates, the Traditions lie in wait. A slow but constant trickle of Traditional mages has been arriving since the Virtual Adept defection. They bide their time, training their Apprentices and form heterogenous Cabals expert in covert magick totally insidious to the Technocracy's aims. The mages are lead in example by the Free Four cabal and the new and reformed Defcon. If they recover one of Monterrey's Nodes, the entire balance of power could shift radically.

And from afar, the Marauders have scryed and seen the soft spots in the walls. One slip by either Technocracy or Traditions, and the spots will become gaping holes, and then, anything could happen.

... on and on the story goes.